


Late-Night Lights

by Erea



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Love Confessions, Mental Health Issues, Recovery, Sleeping Together, jason actually gets mental support wow what a world we live in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25225111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erea/pseuds/Erea
Summary: He didn’t anticipate falling asleep in your bed on a random weeknight with you clinging onto his arm like a limpet. He doesn’t mind, though.a.k.a Jason realises he’s in love with you in a neon glow.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Jason Todd, Jason Todd/Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd/Reader, Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 8
Kudos: 213





	Late-Night Lights

“I’m in love with you.”, Jason says before he can catch himself.

It’s not that he doesn’t mean it: he does. He loves you so much it scares him. He’s still new to all of this, still struggling to wrap his head around how to deal with Dick’s brotherly physical affection or Bruce’s quiet attempts to redeem himself or Tim’s constant teasing. He’s still learning how to cope with the emotions those things make him feel without just killing someone.

Although Jason’s always felt everything deeply - ever since he was little and already surviving on his own - it’s been worse since he came back. At first, he was just rage and sadness and he was so terrified that he was going to drown beneath the weight of it all. How was he meant to fit back in to a world that had already moved on?

He remembers feeling as though he was suffocating under his own mind. Killing people in fits of uncontrollable anger and justifying it because of the fucked up things they did and then collapsing in an alleyway two hours later and sobbing. Having panic attacks that made him pull out his own hair just for something to hold onto. Being so hell-bent on revenge just so he felt like he had a purpose and a reason to exist despite the universe so clearly not wanting him-

_Breathe._

It’s over now.

Jason cherishes the memories of his anagnorisis. The Waynes - it doesn’t feel right to call them his family, not just yet, even though they feel like it - had welcomed him with open arms and helped him fight through everything. Even when it all got too much sometimes and he had screaming breakdowns that forced Bruce to isolate him for his own safety.

They’d been there for him and he’s certain he wouldn’t have made it back without them. And you.

You’d been new when he’d went back to the Waynes. You’d never known him as Jason Peter Todd, you’d only known him as Red Hood the absolutely fucked-up and terrifying vigilante; it didn’t make you the slightest bit hesitant to help him.

You’ve never treat him like he’s broken. Dick does it sometimes, treading on eggshells around Jason, and although Jason knows his older brother (the word feels strange in his mouth) is just concerned, god does it _piss him off._

All you’ve ever done is be a beacon of light and hope for Jason.

He really does try not to give the credit for his recovery to you - you hate it and he knows he needs to recognise all the work that he’s put in too. But he knows that without your gentle touch, without you comforting him through panic attacks at some times and then blatantly telling him his behaviour was unacceptable at others, it would’ve taken him many more years to reach this point.

Now, Jason can cope with Dick ruffling his hair and, on the good days, can even do it back and actually have it feel right. He can laugh at Tim’s frequent roasts because he _knows_ that they’re jokes and he actually finds some of them funny sometimes. He still struggles with Bruce, but recovery is a long journey. He still gets overwhelmed and angsty and out of control sometimes, but he’s learning.

Learning to trust you has put him where he is now: lying on his back in your bed on a random Wednesday night and watching the rain pound on the windows. You’re asleep next to him - you always have slept better than him - and he’s content, for now, just to listen to your slow breaths. It relaxes him.

You’re curled up, facing him, clutching his left bicep and smooshing your face up against the t-shirt he left in your wardrobe a few months ago for nights like these. One of your legs is hitched over his own and it doesn’t make him feel unsafe or trapped in the slightest.

Jason can see your face illuminated by the glow of street-lamps and neon club signs outside your apartment (he worries about you living in this neighbourhood but he tries to remember that you can take care of yourself). The curve of your lips and the slope of your nose and each individual eyelash on your closed eyes. You look like an angel.

“I’m in love with you.”, Jason says before he can catch himself.

He knows you’d say it back if he had the guts to admit it to you while you were awake. He’s just not ready yet.

He’s always felt everything deeply and this is no exception. Jason studies your face as you sleep. It makes his chest warm when you pull his arm closer into you - it makes his heart hurt a little in a good way when you mumble his name in your sleep - it makes him chuckle quietly when you begin to drool against him.

Jason doesn’t know how to express the depth of everything he feels for you. Maybe he’ll ask Dick. He’ll never actually _do_ all the ridiculous and over-the-top things Dick will giddily suggest, but he’s learned to talk through these intense emotions instead of letting them drown him. To ride the wave instead of falling under it. Besides, he knows he’ll fuck up admitting everything to you if he doesn’t learn a way to get it off his chest first.

A few weeks, Jason concedes, and then he’ll talk to Dick. Until then, he’s happy to bask in the warmth of your smile and clumsily work his way through it with you. There’s no rush: there never is with you. Jason turns onto his side, wrapping his free arm around your waist and pulls you closer to him. He’ll try to sleep now.

It’s a Wednesday night in Gotham and he feels like Jason Peter Todd again and he’s in love.

**Author's Note:**

> I rly do be a hoe for Jason atm


End file.
